7 responses to “Max Velocity: What would you do if your force is unable to obtain fire superiority?”

Another nice one from Max Velocity as he addresses the use of older tech.

Bolt guns aren’t so bad. There used to be a copy of what the Brits did a hundred years ago, run three times a summer in Wyoming on the second day of rifle matches.

A “Lord Roberts” rifle match was staged at 300y on raised pit targets, a 24″ bull. Object was to put the most rounds on target in a minute. In my experience with this over the years, the winner shot a US M1917 Enfield, he got 17 hits in a minute with iron sights.

In the British Army, the winner in 1914 or so got 39 hits in a minute with his non-AR. He was likely a stud in the British Army of that time, and we all know what happened to the British Army as it went to France.

I’ve only been able to put out about 24 shots/minute with an Enfield bolt rifle, and about 14 hits in running this course numerous times. Lately, I’ve heard that the old British target was more generous in scoring low hits than what we used to shoot at Guernsey. Whatever. The guy a hundred years ago knew his rifle real well. Those rifles are still available to learn from, making rounds for them is another matter but still can be done if the will is there.

Iron-sighted bolt rifles are not much of a disadvantage these days if the guy knows the rifle and the rifle is right. Enfields are easy to make right, there’s much in print about it. Do an Enfield right because of the knowledge base, don’t try to run a Mosin just because ammo is still cheap. Hard to make a silk purse out of a sow’s (communist) ear.

People who live in denied areas might think about bringing up old tech to MoM accuracy and making their own rounds, rather than chasing an AR or AK system … if they currently find themselves behind the prepping curve.

The domino theory of weapons acquisition is always in play. Your tribe will be real pleased with what you brought home some evening, due to your proper employment of an old .38 Special revolver.

Wonderful old weapon, I have several of both models, No. 1 and No. 4. Most folks look at them with scorn, they have no idea what that ugly club is, kinda how I used to look at m91 M/N’s. I also have a beautiful 1972 Finn m39, now that’s a shooter! No comparison to the run of the mill m91.
I’ve listened to guys say the last generation of M-1’s, G-3’s and M-14’s are so antiquated they’re worthless, the only gun to run is a new tricked out AR. Really stupid way to end up dead fast.
Some of the comments were interesting, funny what notions people get in their heads. Like the one that most guerrilla fighters are small people due to diet. Really? Where?
And only big people can hump that ‘beast’ MG? Only giants are qualified to carry Brens and MG-42’s, I used to hump an M-60 in jungle when I weighed about 145! Best machine gunner I knew in the Corps was a little guy. So let’s walk away from heavy weapons because nobody is man enough to pack one, or ammo is short. What if tomorrows raid brings in ammo in quantity? The logic here is the same as flinging your handgun away because it’s empty!
The next guerrilla war is not like the last ones, like everything else in life, things change. Get used to it.

Think this was MV’s best post yet, extremely realistic. One aspect that might need more emphasis is attack “tempo”: given the likelihood, at least early on, that RegimeFor will have on-call air support, any ambush by FreefFor or encounter firefight will have to be gotten over with quickly. Since Max mentioned Rommel, so will I: R emphasized this, even to the point of issuing radio orders uncoded, in the clear, calculating that the gain in attack tempo would outweigh any disadavantages in OpSec. And he was almost always right, losing in the end only by attrition at the hands of overwhelmingly superior force.